...in which L is concerned that whomever is raising her child isn't doing such a great job

Lately L has become slightly concerned about the raising of the Peanut. Who's in charge of this anyway? When does the organization who will make evaluations and then give feedback arrive? When all is said and done, who is L allowed to complain to about the way things are being run?

It often seems that 'Nut wakes up each morning with a checklist of things that drive L crazy, and tries to complete as many items as possible. In addition, the 'Nut has managed to turn many exciting and cheerfully anticipated milestones into befuddling, and often concerning quirks.

For Example:

L and Ox used baby sign language with the 'Nut. This resulted in his early development of language but not speech. He is just now really into the 'repeating stage' (note: this has resulted in many asides with L's younger sisters about appropriate language) that L has been looking forward to so much. However as a necessary nod to his title of  'World's Orneriest Baby', 'Nut prefaces every repeated phrase with the word 'No'. i.e. (said by L) "Peanut would you please pick up your magnet letters" = (repeated by Peanut) "No Peanut pick up magnet letters"... (L again) "We need to wait for Bapa to get home before we eat" = (Peanut, don't forget the whine in the voice) "No need to wait for Bapa to get home before we eat". The repetition has reached quite impressive heights in both length of phrase repeated and pronunciation of words but all the good is overshadowed by the sheer orneriness of the reply. And as an added bonus this adorable little tic is not limited by things he doesn't want to do, or even things said to him. The other, particularly joyful, day while L and 'Nut were in the car listening to the radio the town Stillwater was mentioned by the DJ and Peanut could be heard, shouting form the back seat, "No Stillwater!".

Another Example:

Now L doesn't remember being a very imaginative child herself. So, she has been very excited for Peanut to reach the phase where he imagines things himself. She can still fondly remember the day, not too long ago, when she found 'Nut pretending to be a lion. How precious! However, 'Nut doesn't seem to be inclined to imagine himself in any scenario where he is not the 'bad guy'. He is the monster attacking you, his friends, his mom, the dogs; after watching Bug's Life he was a grasshopper; he is a tiger trying to eat you; he is a dragon destroying your crops and home; he is a shark attacking the little Nemo fish. The other day after reading a book about sea creatures he attacked L both in the guise of an 'evil octopus' and an 'evil shark'. The only 'good' character he plays is Bapa (Dad) to L's oldest, falling apart baby doll, who he renamed Eva, and carries around like a queen.

L fully expects to, someday soon, turn this post in as a record of how things are going so that Peanut's pay and benefits may be docked accordingly.

Pulling His Weight...or...Non-Porn Pic

I had to post this picture immediately. Not because it's an activity that doesn't happen often, but because I can never seem to get a picture of it happening that doesn't show my baby's bits and pieces. This is Peanut scrubbing the bathtub.

3 Reasons Why:

1. He uses the tub the most. He takes on average 3 baths a day. Is this unusual? Probably but I don't care. He loves the bath. He takes one most morning either before breakfast (to warm up) or after breakfast to clean up. He takes another one at some point in the day because he is potty training and has usually 1 accident a day. He takes one right before or right after his nap (this is sometimes combined with the potty training one).  He often takes one in the evenings after dinner or before bed. He takes one if he plays outside and gets muddy. And he takes one if he's being fussy, because they calm him down. If we lived in California he'd be in the pool all day, in Oklahoma he takes multiple baths. So if he's the one getting it dirty I figure he should be the one cleaning it up.
2. He is in (and has been for a while) the 'helper' stage. He loves to help. If I'm doing dishes he wants to do dishes. If I'm sweeping, he wants to sweep. Etc. So he's been helping with the bathroom scrubbing for over a year now and at this point he does it to his ability, without my interference, and then I have my turn to 'check it'. 
3. He can do it because all my cleaning supplies are non-toxic. Anything I clean with Peanut could shove in his mouth and chew on with no adverse effects. In this picture (taken this morning at 9ish) he was scrubbing with baking soda, scented with lemon and tea tree essential oil. When he helps me spray and wipe the kitchen counter, table and fridge it's with vinegar scented with lemon and peppermint oil. I love that the reason I have a child lock for under my kitchen sink is not because Peanut might poison himself, but because he might clean too much. I know, I'm one of those blasted tree-hugger types. What can you do?

Over and Out,
L

Fair & Parade

All this week was our local county fair. We went last weekend to see if any animals were there yet and found two mama goats and three baby goats. Peanut loved them! We ended up going back multiple times during the week to feed them the weeds and grass just outside their reach.

One day I saw on the schedule "Farm Hand Olympics'. Obviously we had to go! It turned out to be an activity for youth/teenagers. They were put on teams and had to compete in one of the following activities: Cow Patty Throwing, Steer Dummy Roping, Seed Spitting (both distance and accuracy), and Holey Water Bucket Water Transfer.
 

Peanut met and played with a little girl there...under the bleachers! wink wink

A different night we went to the goat show...where Peanut met another little girl.

 

----Random insert----

He played Frown/Happy Face with Mama

He met Smokey the Bear. 

On Friday night we went to the Tractor Pull. If you have no idea what that is, let me explain. They have tractors in different classes pull this big weight machine. They have unmodified tractors and multiple stages of modified tractors.

Peanut also met, and played with, a little girl here.

Saturday morning Ox had to get going early since he was in the 16th Celebration Land Run Parade. Peanut and I went to the Lil' Settlers Land Run. Peanut competed in the 1 and under race and......WON! Yep my little 'Nut got first place. So cute! In fact (although I don't have a picture) his cousin Madi won in the 3 year old class.

Then we took the kids to see the DitchWitch Ox would be driving in the parade.

We thought the parade started at 10 but it actually started at 10:30 so there was plenty of time for Grammie-cuddling. Then the parade started and there were a lot of fun things to see and plenty of candy to gather (who decided it was a good idea to teach kids that if they wave at a car and run toward it, someone will throw them candy?). Luckily Aunts Wendy and Hillary were there so my parental responsibilities were pretty minimal. ;)

Yea our Ox drove by in the BIG DitchWitch. Peanut wanted to go with him but couldn't. :(

 

Then we wandered around, ate fair food and hung out with our friends, the Bagleys. Wendy and Hillary tried the flippy, spinny thing. Looked like fun!

 

Super fun week!

Catch up...Just a Little

Ahh my interwebs family! How I've missed you. Why am I a slacker who can't seem to keep her blog updated, resorting to long, unorganized and almost incomprehensible posts? Well the reasons are varied and complicated...I'm sure you wouldn't understand. Or maybe I'm just lazy? Who knows?

Let's see what adventures these Ls and Oxs have had since last time?

Most of the summer has been spent naked...at least by the Peanut.

We have made bread and pizza dough with the 'help' of little hands.

We lost 75% of our fence to a summer storm that also brought enough rain to make mowing a priority again. Also we told the 'Nut he'd been mooching off the family too long and it was time to start pulling his weight! Although he only weighs 25 lbs so that's probably not much...

One of us got adorably cute kimono jammers form Aunt Miyuki; the rest of us were too big. :(

That same lucky jammer-reciever tried to eat an entire bottle of fiber pills and was luckily saved by his mama.

His Bapa continued to encourage him to tell people to 'suck it' through sign.

...and to attack his mama  as a scary shark, or scary octopus, using fingers, teeth and ewwww tongues.

Mostly we made messes.

 Now I'm not sure what this summer was like for most of you but in in OK it was hell-like conditions. So hot and so dry! I like a good warm summer myself, but any day over 110 is a bit much for even me and we had plenty of those. However, it finally cooled off. It's been beautiful weather since Labor Day weekend so we've actually been able to go outside and play...

to be continued...

Parenting is Hard but I am a Genius!!!

Newsflash: Being a parent is hard. It is a full-time, exhausting job, more work than any other job I've ever done. And just so you know that's only the actual parenting part. That amount of exhaustion doesn't even include the million other side jobs I'm expected to do: cleaning my house, keeping fit, keeping up our yard, church stuff, other general family responsibilities like sister, daughter, not to mention wife. Parenting is easier when your partner is there but guess what? He's usually at work and then home working his million other side jobs: cleaning the house, upkeep on the yard, church stuff, being a brother, son and husband.


I often think that if I was allowed to concentrate on just parenting and being a wife I could really excel especially if my ever-loving Ox was home and available more often. So I came up with a brilliant plan!!!!! I'm not kidding this will revolutionize the world.

1.  Everyone MUST retire at 55, regardless of job. This opens up those jobs for all of us young folk (my Ox included). Too many old-type people lost money in the market and stayed in their positions (or even worse came out of retirement) so they wouldn't have to live on cat food or give up their RVs. We don't just want the jobs we want the good jobs.
2. Old-type people will have 2 new part time jobs from 55 until 75 (or death):
1. Half time they will be at libraries, parks and city hall (or available for you to take home) purely to advise. Don't know how to bake bread? Don't worry Grandma Josephine makes wonderful bread and she'll come and show you how to do it. Don't know how to fix your plumbing? Grandpa Jo can explain the exact steps. They can advise on thousands of subjects and will, lawfully, be required to do so. Stop hoarding your knowledge Old Ones!
2. Half time they will clean houses and upkeep yards. They know how and it will keep them in shape. Plus it's only half day- I'm not a slave driver!
3. Since the old-type people gave up all the really good jobs this means we can afford to pay them for the half time they clean up after us AND all that social security they keep talking about disappearing will be plenty to pay their half time advisory positions.
4. All of this leaving parents the time to just parent. Read books, play play-doh, go to the park and teach our kids. Done and done.

You're Welcome. 

This Will Make It All Better

This life-saving recipe and post are a result of a) the overwhelming heat and humidity of Oklahoma b) a giant container of cheese balls, gorged on and finished and c) 1/4 of a small watermelon that was a bit too grainy.

Aqua Fresca

3 - 4 cups fresh fruit, coarsely chopped
6 - 8 cups water
1/4 - 3/4 cups sugar
2 T - 1/4 cup lime juice (optional)

1. Add the fruit and 2 - 3 cups of water to the blender. Blend until smooth. Strain through a sieve/cheese cloth/thin dish towel (hey don't judge).
2. Add the rest of the water, paying attention to taste. Add sugar 1/4 cup at a time, paying attention to taste. Add lime juice if it seems a little boring. 

Serve chilled!

Note 1: This is not fruit juice. It's not supposed to have a really strong taste, think lemon water...
Note 2: Try this! It is very common in Mexico and more refreshing than soda or water.
Note 3: In Mexico this always seemed to be served in a huge glass/plastic barrel-looking container. Should you have a giant, empty cheese ball container this will also work.

Options:

• Agua de Sandia - watermelon (my favorite)
• Agua de Melo - cantaloupe or other melon (way better than you're expecting)
• Aqua de Fresa - strawberry
• Aqua de Papaya - papaya (add lime to this one)
• Aqua Fresca de Pepino - cucumber (peel and seed and use lime)

You're Welcome!

Two Things I Am Not Good At

Lately I've been trying to remind myself that I don't have to be good at everything. I need to focus on my strengths and slowly work on my weaknesses as I can but really try not to let the weaknesses overwhelm me. So here goes...here are two things I am not good at:

1. Ice cube trays. I cannot seem to work an ice cube tray. There are always 1 - 2 ice cubes that won't come out or come out broken. And that's when I remember to fill the tray up. I never put it back in empty but putting it back with 1 cube is not unusual and then I'm super irritated that I don't have more ice the next time. 
2. Raking. I honestly don't understand what muscles raking uses and why I obviously don't use them in ANY other chore or daily activity. How can they be so unused?!? I can push mow my very large back yard and it's a workout but I cannot seem to rake for more than 5 minutes (ok closer to 3).

There you go. Feel free to feel superior if you are an expert at one of the above...or share one of your weaknesses. Or don't, if you have trouble commenting on people's blogs...

The Dreaded Photo Post

OK I blame no one for refusing to wait for this page to download and moving on. If you're still interested here are the 1000 most recent photos of my legume. 

Peanut is all about hiding right now. We recently moved around our living room furniture and now there is a perfect place to hide behind the couch. Peanut loves it.

Chick-fil-a is one of the best food places for kids. We haven't been in quite a while but this is Peanut in a random hat he found in the cubbies. Yea for not contracting lice!

Yes that's a cowboy hat. He also has real boots we actually paid for. I'm as surprised as you that I'm ok with this, but come on, we live in Oklahoma.

Who doesn't have a picture of their baby in a laundry basket? 

Yea summer is almost here! Old Navy flip flops make me happy. 

A picture missed in the Science Museum post. Mad Scientist anyone?

This is what happens when the house is too quiet. Ewwwwwww!

 Coloring eggs for Easter with Aunt Wendy. He made amazingly few messes, however all his eggs were cracked.

 The Saturday before Easter on our way to Aunt Josie we had to stop for eggs etc. Peanut love grocery store horses and luckily most around here are free of way cheap.

 Surprise. Not just plastic eggs to hunt for..these have candy!

 

 Peanut and I already have to compromise about his clothing. This vest is often the compromise. I get to pick out weather appropriate clothing and he puts the vest on top.

 So I make an 18 month old play outside in the backyard with only the dogs for company...and I baby gate him out...and I force him to show me his dirty hands so I can take a picture before I let him in...your point?

 It's not on!

 Wouldn't be a picture post without a naked picture.

 A couple of weekends ago we went to the Renaissance Fair with Tio Kit. It was great fun!

At said Renaissance Fair, Peanut drinking a ridiculous amount of homemade root beer and cream soda mixed. 

 After said Renaissance Fair the two boys, all tuckered out.

 Once again, the house gets too quiet while L is doing laundry. She returns to find the Peanut here. He won't get out. She takes out dry laundry and puts in cold wet laundry. He is not deterred. Should she start it?

 This used to be an entire loaf of homemade bread. This is what happens when Peanut gets his own breakfast.

 A couple days ago a zoo trip with L, Peanut, Grammie, Rachel, Cal, Madi, Katie Mae and Aunt Em:

Cousins

 The gorilla loves Peanut.

 Hiding off the path the second L turns her back.

 A much needed water break in the middle of the zoo trip.

A Peanut and his Bapa.

There you go. More pictures in one post than most of us born before 2000 have for our entire lives.